The Boy and The Rabbit
by Lialane Graest
Summary: In the middle of a clearing sits a young boy, a mangled rabbit at his feet. The blonde girl entering the clearing faces a decision- flee from the predator, or stay and see what he has to teach her. Young!Stein and Young!Marie


The blonde weapon stumbled through the wooded area outside of Shibusen, tears in her eye as she ran away from her latest "boyfriend". Sobbing she managed to bump into everything that could potentially hurt or cut her, and managed to rip her skirt twice, slashing her arm deep enough to draw blood once. She kept on running, more than a little afraid that the boy was following her with his goon like friends. She finally stopped, leaning against a tree to catch her breath.

Listening carefully she didn't hear any sounds of pursuit and allowed herself a sigh of relief. "Come on, Marie. Get a hold of yourself. He couldn't be that mad that you punched him so hard he slammed into the thing they were keeping that stupid sports drink in and it spilled all over him. I mean… he is the one who dumped me! He deserved it!" Marie slammed her hand into the tree she was leaning against before realizing that her hand had turned into a hammer.

There was a loud crack and Marie cautiously darted away from the tree, desperately willing her hand back into a hand and out of its hammer form. Sighing she looked around, thankful the tree hadn't fallen, but she was completely lost. The girl wandered for a while and stopped when she heard the quiet giggles that it sounded like someone was desperately trying to keep contained.

"Thank Death that I found someone! I'm completely lost!" Marie said enthusiastically as she entered the clearing where someone sat with their back to her. The person was wearing all white, but the stitches in the shirt were jagged and black and the person had greyish-silver hair.

He craned his head over his shoulder to look at her, high pitched giggles spilling out of his mouth. Blood was splattered on his face; a sadistic grin plastered on it.

Marie took an involuntary step back. "Are… are you alright?" She asked hesitantly as the boy picked himself up from the ground and turned to face her. There was more blood splashed on his shirt, and the boy was holding a bloody scalpel in his right hand.

Blood dripped from the scalpel and Marie's eye focused on the mangled… thing… that was lying in front of where the boy had been sitting. Her scream tore through the woods.

The boy was fast; he darted to her before she could move. He wrapped his small, cold hand around her mouth as his foot knocked her foot out from underneath her and then he was kneeling beside her, half supporting her with his smaller frame. The scalpel in his other hand hovered an inch from her throat even as his face contorted through very, very different emotions. Marie trembled in his grasp as it was obvious that the boy was holding her life in his hands.

A long moment passed during which she forgot to breathe, and then he shoved her away from himself. A hissed warning followed, _"You had better not have scared everything away with that scream." _The boy then stood and walked away from her, kneeling in front of whatever the mangled thing on the ground was.

Marie stayed motionless, afraid to move; afraid to provoke the strange boy again. She watched as his shoulders moved slightly, and the suppressed giggles echoed through the clearing again. She stood and took a deep breath, fighting against the feeling that was telling her that he was a predator and she was prey and she just needed to flee the area, never return. He must have heard her moving towards him, and he looked back over his shoulder at her.

The smile on his face was creepier to her than the sadistic grin had been; it looked like one of pure enjoyment. She approached close enough to tell that the mangled mess in front of him had once been a pure white rabbit. The bits of fur that weren't blood soaked were a beautiful white. Marie covered her mouth with her hand, tears gathering her eye.

"Do you want to help?" The boy asked, and Marie tore her eye away from the carcass in front of her. "I'll catch another one and you can help, if you'd like." A smile was on his face, and he held the bloody scalpel out to her.

Afraid that he would use it on her if she refused, Marie gingerly took the blade from the boy and nodded. The boy casually walked off into the woods again, leaving Marie standing over the mangled rabbit with a bloody scalpel in her hands. Some part of her told her that this was the time to flee, to run, to escape, but she couldn't bring herself to. Some other part of her was telling her that this boy, whoever he was, needed her more than she needed to get away from him.

So she stayed in the clearing until he came back, a look of surprise on his face when he found her still waiting for him, the scalpel dangling from her fingertips. He smiled as he broke the rabbit's neck and then took the scalpel back from her, laying the rabbit on its back on the ground.

"You're going to learn a lot today," Stein said as he made the first incision in the rabbit, red blood welling up against its white fur.

Marie held back the tears she felt for both the boy and the rabbit.

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**A/N: I hope that you liked this. I got inspired when I found the picture, and this is what you get.**

**I don't own Soul Eater.**


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